INDIAN TREATIES

The territory known as the "Black Hawk Purchase," although not the first portion of Iowa ceded to the United States by the Sacs and Foxes, was the first opened to actual settlement by the tide of emigration which flowed across the Mississippi as soon as the Indian title was extinguished. The treaty which provided for this cession was made at a council held on the west bank of the Mississippi, where now stands the City of Davenport, on ground now occupied by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, September 21, 1832. This was just after the Black Hawk war and the defeated savages had retired from east of the Mississippi. At the council the Government was represented by Gen. Winfield Scott and Governor Reynolds, of Illinois. Keokuk, Pash-a-popo and some thirty other chiefs and warriors were there. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land on the eastern border of Iowa, fifty miles wide, from the northern boundary of Missouri to the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, containing about six million acres. The western line of the purchase was parallel with the Mississippi. In consideration for this cession. the United States agreed to pay annually to the confederated tribes, for thirty consecutive years, $20,000 in specie, and to pay the debts of the Indians at Rock Island, which had been accumulating for seventeen years and amounted to $50,000, due to Davenport & Farnham, Indian traders. The Government also donated to the Sac and Fox women and children, whose husbands and fathers had fallen in the Black Hawk war, thirty-five beef cattle, twelve bushels of salt, thirty barrels of pork, fifty barrels of flour and 6,000 bushels of corn.

The treaty was ratified February 13, 1833, and took effect on the 1st of June following, when the Indians quietly removed from the ceded territory and this fertile and beautiful region was opened by white settlers.

By the terms of the treaty, out of the "Black Hawk Purchase" was reserved for the Sacs and Foxes 400 square miles of land, situated on the Iowa River and including within its limits Keokuk village, on the right bank of that river. This tract was known as Keokuk's Reserve and was occupied by the Indians until 1836, when by a treaty made in September between them and Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin Territory, it was ceded to the United States. The council was held on the banks of the Mississippi above Davenport and was the largest assemblage of the kind ever held by the Sacs and Foxes to treat for the sale of land. About one thousand of their chiefs and braves were present, Keokuk being the leading spirit of the occasion and their principal speaker.

FIRST LAND TITLE IN IOWA

By the terms of this treaty the Sacs and Foxes were removed to another reservation on the Des Moines River, where an agency was established at what is now the Town of Agency, in Wapello County. The Government also gave out of the "Black Hawk Purchase," to Antoine LeClaire, interpreter, in fee simple, one section of land opposite Rock Island and another at the head of the first rapids above the island, on the Iowa side. This was the first land title granted by the United States to an individual in Iowa.

Gen. Joseph M. Street established an agency among the Sacs and Foxes very soon after the removal of the latter to their new reservation. He was transferred from the agency of the Winnebagoes for this purpose. A farm was selected, upon which the necessary buildings were erected, including a comfortable farm house for the agent and his family, at the expense of the Indian fund. A salaried agent was employed to superintend the farm and dispose of the crops. Two mills were erected-one on Soap Creek and the other on Sugar Creek. The latter was soon swept away by a flood but the former did good service for many years.

Connected with the agency were Joseph Smart and John Goodell, interpreters. The latter was interpreter for Hard Fishes' band. Three of the Indian chiefs-Keokuk, Wapello and Appanoose-had each a large field improved, the two former on the right bank of the Des Moines and back from the river in what was "Keokuk's Prairie," and the latter on the present site of Ottumwa. Among the traders connected with their agency was J. P. Eddy, who established his post at what is now the site of Eddyville. The Indians at this agency became idle and listless in the absence of their natural excitements and many of them plunged into dissipation. Keokuk himself became dissipated in the latter years of his life and it has been reported that he died of delirium tremens after his removal with his tribe to Kansas. In May, 1843, most of the Indians were removed up the Des Moines River, above the temporary line of Red Rock, having ceded the remnants of their land in Iowa to the United States, September 21, 1837, and October 11, 1842. By the terms of the latter treaty, they held possession of the "New Purchase" until the autumn of 1845, when most of them were removed to their reservation in Kansas, the balance being removed in 1846.

Before any permanent settlement was made in the Territory of Iowa, white adventurers, trappers and traders, many of whom were scattered along the Mississippi and its tributaries, as agents and employes of the American Fur Company, intermarried with the females of the Sac and Fox Indians, producing a race of half-breeds, whose number was never definitely ascertained. There were some respectable and excellent people among them, children of some refinement and education.

EARLY SETTLEMENT

The first permanent settlement made by the whites within the limits of Iowa was by Julien Dubuque in 1788, when, with a small party of miners, he settled on the site of the city that now bears his name, where he lived until his death in 1810. What was known as the Girard Settlement in Clayton County was made by some parties prior to the commencement of the nineteenth century. It consisted of three cabins in 1805. Louis Honori settled on the site of the present Town of Montrose, probably in 1799, and resided there probably until 1805, when his property passed into other hands. Indian traders had established themselves at other points at an early date. Mr. Johnson, an agent of the American Fur Company, had a trading post below Burlington, where he carried on traffic with the Indians some time before the United States came into possession of Louisiana. In 1820, Le Moliese, a French trader, had a station at what

is now Sandusky, six miles above Keokuk, in Lee County. The same year a cabin was built where the City of Keokuk now stands by Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a surgeon in the United States Army. His marriage and subsequent life were very romantic. While stationed at a military post on the Upper Mississippi, the post was visited by a beautiful Indian maiden-whose native name unfortunately has not been preserved—who in her dreams had seen a white brave unmoor his canoe, paddle it across the river and come directly to her lodge. She felt assured, according to the superstitious belief of her race, that in her dreams. she had seen her future husband and had come to the fort to find him. Meeting Doctor Muir she instantly recognized him as the hero of her dream which, with childlike simplicity and innocence, she related to him. Charmed with the dusky maiden's beauty, innocence and devotion, the doctor took her to his home in honorable wedlock; but after a while the sneers and jibes of his brother officersless honorable than he-made him feel ashamed of his dark-skinned wife, and when his regiment was ordered down the river to Bellefontaine, it is said he embraced the opportunity to rid himself of her, never expecting to see her again and little dreaming that she would have the courage to follow him. But with her infant this intrepid wife and mother started alone in her canoe and after many days of weary labor and a lonely journey of 900 miles, she at last reached him. She afterward remarked, when speaking of this toilsome journey down the river in search of her husband: "When I got there I was all perished away-so thin." The doctor, touched by such unexampled devotion, took her to his heart and ever after until his death treated her with marked respect. She always presided at his table with grace and dignity but never abandoned her native style of dress. In 1819-20 he was stationed at Fort Edwards, now Warsaw, but the senseless ridicule of some of his brother officers on account of his Indian wife induced him to resign his commission. He then built a cabin, as above stated, where Keokuk is now situated and made a claim to some land. This land he leased to parties in the neighborhood and then moved to what is now Galena, where he practiced his profession for ten years, when he returned to Keokuk. His Indian wife bore him four children: Louise, James, Mary and Sophia. Doctor Muir died suddenly, of cholera, in 1832, but left his property in such condition that it was wasted in vexatious litigation. and his brave and faithful wife, left friendless and penniless, became discouraged, so with her two younger children she disappeared. It is said she returned to her people on the Upper Missouri.

CIVIL GOVERNMENT FOR TERRITORY AND STATE

After the "Black Hawk Purchase" immigration to Iowa was rapid and steady and provisions for civil government became a necessity. Accordingly, in 1834, all the territory comprising the present states of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, was made subject to the jurisdiction of Michigan Territory. Up to this time there had been no county or other organization in what is now the State of Iowa, although one or two justices of the peace had been appointed and a postoffice was established at Dubuque in 1833. In September of 1834, therefore, the Territorial Legislature of Michigan created two counties on the west side of the Mississippi River-Dubuque and Des Moines-separated by a line

drawn westward from the foot of Rock Island. These counties were partially organized. John King was appointed chief justice of Dubuque County and Isaac Leffler of Des Moines County was appointed by the governor.

In October, 1835, Gen. George W. Jones, in recent years a citizen of Dubuque, was elected a delegate to Congress. April 20, 1836, through the efforts of General Jones, Congress passed a bill creating the Territory of Wisconsin, which went into operation July 4th of the same year. Iowa was then included in the Territory of Wisconsin, of which Gen. Henry Dodge was appointed governor; John S. Horner, secretary; Charles Dunn, chief justice; David Irwin and William C. Frazier, associate justices. September 9, 1836, a census of the new territory was taken. Des Moines County showed a population of 6,257, and Dubuque County, 4,274.

ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY OF IOWA

The question of the organization of the Territory of Iowa now began to be agitated and the desires of the people found expression in a convention held November 1st, which memorialized Congress to organize a territory west of the Mississippi River and to settle the boundary line between Wisconsin Territory and Missouri. The Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin, then in session in Burlington, joined in the petition. The act was passed dividing the Territory of Wisconsin and providing for the territorial government of Iowa. This was approved June 12, 1838, to take effect and be in force on and after July 3, 1838.

The new territory embraced "all that part of the present Territory of Wisconsin west of the Mississippi River and west of the line drawn due north from the headwaters of sources of the Mississippi River to the territorial line." The organic act provided for a governor, whose term of office should be three years; a secretary, chief justice, two associate justices, an attorney general and marshal, to be appointed by the President. The act also provided for the election, by the white citizens over twenty-one years of age, of a House of Representatives, consisting of twenty-six members and a council to consist of thirteen members. It also appropriated $5,000 for a public library and $20,000 for the erection of public buildings. In accordance with this act, President Van Buren appointed ex-Governor Robert Lucas, of Ohio, to be the first governor of the territory; William B. Conway, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, secretary; Charles Mason, of Burlington, chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Williams, of Pennsylvania, associate justices; Mr. Van Allen, of New York, attorney; Francis Gehon, of Dubuque, marshal; Augustus C. Dodge, register of the land office at Burlington; and Thomas C. Knight, receiver of the land office at Dubuque.

On the 10th of September, 1838, an election was held for members of the Legislature and on the 12th of the following November the first session of that body was held at Burlington. Both branches of this General Assembly had a large democratic majority but notwithstanding that fact, Gen. Jesse B. Brown, a whig, of Lee County, Des Moines and Dubuque counties having been previously divided into other counties, was elected president of the Council and Hon. William H. Wallace, of Henry County, also a whig, speaker of the House. The first session of the Iowa Territorial Legislature was a stormy and exciting one.

By the organic law the governor was clothed with almost unlimited veto power. Governor Lucas was disposed to make free use of this prerogative and the independent Hawkeyes could not quietly submit to arbitrary and absolute rule. The result was an unpleasant controversy between the executive and legisla tive departments. Congress, however, by act approved March 3, 1839, amended the organic law by restricting the veto power of the governor to the two-thirds rule and took from him the power to appoint sheriffs and magistrates. Among the first important matters demanding attention was the location of the seat of government and provision for the erection of public buildings, for which Congress had appropriated $20,000. Governor Lucas in his message had recommended the appointment of commissioners with a view to selecting a central location. The extent of the future State of Iowa was not known or thought of. Only a strip of land fifty miles wide, bordering on the Mississippi River, was alienated by the Indians to the general government and a central location meant some central point within the confines of what was known as the "Black Hawk Purchase."

The friends of a central location favored the governor's suggestion. The southern members were divided between Burlington and Mount Pleasant but finally united on the latter as the proper location for the seat of government. The central and southern parties were very nearly equal and in consequence much excitement prevailed. The central party at last was triumphant and on January 21, 1839, an act was passed appointing commissioners to select a site for a permanent seat of government within the limits of Johnson County. All things considered, the location of the capital in Johnson County was a wise act. Johnson County was from north to south in the geographical center of the purchase and as near the east and west geographical center of the future State of Iowa as could then be made. The site having been determined, 640 acres were laid out by the commissioners into a town and called Iowa City. On a tract of ten acres the capitol was built, the corner-stone of which was laid, with appropriate ceremonies, July 4, 1840. Monday, December 6, 1841, the fourth Legislature of Iowa met at the new capital, Iowa City, but the capitol building not being ready for occupancy, a temporary frame house erected for the purpose was used.

In 1841 John Chambers succeeded Robert Lucas as governor and in 1845 he gave place to James Clarke. The Territorial Legislature held its eighth and last session at Iowa City in 1845. James Clarke was the same year appointed the successor of Governor Chambers and was the third and last territorial governor.

THE TERRITORY BECOMES THE STATE OF IOWA

The Territory of Iowa was growing rapidly in its population and soon began to look for greater things. Her ambition was to take on the dignity and importance of statehood. To the furtherance of this laudable ambition the Territorial Legislature passed an act, which was approved February 12, 1844, providing for the submission to the people of the question of the formation of a state constitution and providing for the election of delegates to a convention to be convened for that purpose. The people voted on this at their township